Mgt7019-1 Different Perspectives of Drucker, Friedman and...

Abstract The purpose of this week’s assignment was to read three peer reviewed/scholarly journals and compare and contrast each author’s ethical perspective. The articles were: What is Business Ethics by Peter F. Drucker, 1981, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits by Milton Friedman, 1970 and The Relevance of Responsibility to Ethical Business Decisions by Patrick E. Murphy, 2010. Ethical Perspectives of Friedman, Drucker and Murphy Peter F. Drucker is known as the man who invented management. Drucker wrote many books on management and influenced the way business and industry thinks about management. â€Å"Peter F. Drucker was a writer, professor, management consultant†¦show more content†¦Drucker recommends the adoption of the five key concepts of Confucian ethics: â€Å"-clear definition of the fundamental relationships; -universal and general rules of conduct-that is, rules that are binding on any one person or organization, according to its rules, function, and relationships; -focus on right behavior rather than on avoiding wrongdoing, and on behavior rather than on motives or intentions; and finally, -an effective organization ethic, indeed an organization ethic that deserves to be seriously considered as ethics, will have to define right behavior as the behavior which optimizes each party’s benefits and thus makes the relationship harm onious, constructive, and mutually beneficial† (Drucker, pp. 35, 36). Several unforeseen problems exist with rule based ethics. These rules do not cover every scenario, and there may be pre-existing rules which overshadow or conflict with the rules. Individuals interpret rules in different ways, as was the case in the article with the lady who stole to feed her children as opposed to someone stealing just to be stealing. The second paper we will discuss is: â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits† by Milton Friedman, 1970. In order to understand the paper, we must first know who Milton Friedman was. â€Å"Milton Friedman played three roles in the